Pray for Romania - Part 2

Published Jan.20, 2013

Thank you so much for your prayers for our outreach to Romania. As I am writing this, we have finished the outreach. We estimate 200 people were prayed for to receive Jesus. So let me thank you again for your prayers and financial support. This was the third time for me to be on this yearly outreach and the second for Zuzanna, my wife. Zuzanna, being skilled in management and logistics, organized and lead the team. The following is a recap of the 2013 Romanian Outreach to the poor of Transylvania. We assembled a team of 19 foreign workers and joined up with about that many Romanian Christian workers.

1)    We shipped from America donated coats, shoes, hats, gloves and stuffed animals to the host church in Romania (many of you helped us fight the spiritual battle to get the shoes past customs)
2)    Our host church, City on a Hill, rented the community centers in four villages; Ormanis, Augustin, Belin and Apata. Then we organized a system of first going house to house giving out tickets which gave the ticket holder the right to redeem shoes or a coat for each member of their family. (a ticket for each member of the family)
3)    Each day we had one team going house to house inviting the family to a performance and passing out tickets Also we had one team transporting the shoes and coats to that day’s village community center. There was no home we were not welcomed into. We only went to the poor areas where mainly the Gypsies lived. We ask them to be at the community at a set time.
4)    In all the villages they were at the door of the community center an hour ahead of time. When the time came for the program to start, we would let them in, checking for tickets. Problems arose with many people showing up without a ticket and wanting to get in. And by the way, village Gypsies, Romanians and Hungarians do not line up but push forward in mass. I think our door people had the worse job.
5)    Once they were in and seated (in Belin and Apata there was limited seating and many had to stand) the program begin; Introductions were made, there was an acrobatic performance, someone gave a testimony and then the Gospel was presented. There was a blanket prayer invitation for salvation and then those that had prayed the prayer were asked to come forward for personal prayer. We took names and addresses to be given to the host church for follow-up.
6)    Then row by row they would file out (push) to the distribution area to get their gift items. At all venues they had to go out the same door they came in. This was a problem for our door-men because of the dissatisfied ones pressing the exit door.
7)    We would then pack up what was left over and start preparing for the next day.
To our knowledge, this type of humanitarian aid distribution had never been tried in this part of Romania. I would like to say that everything went perfect but it didn’t. We were not ready for a dissatisfied crowd. We saw greed, hatred and real disrespect.

If you are following the Praying for the Balkans, Project prayer directives, you realize we are off track. For four years now I have been doing research on the Balkan countries on a weekly basis and publishing a prayer directive of the important prayers to focus on that week. The directive had two main purposes, 1) to provide news of current and also historic events affecting the weeks’ targeted country, 2) build urgency among intercessors to focus on the spiritual dryness of the countries on the Balkan Peninsula.

1)    Please pray for the past outreach in Romania. First pray for those that heard the Gospel but did not receive Jesus. Pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to pursue them.
2)    Pray for those that we prayed with to receive Jesus. Especially pray for the host church as they go follow up. May relationships grow that will help these new Christians to grow.
3)    Pray that the negative impressions caused by the dissatisfied ones would be smoothed out.
4)    This trip was organized by European Initiative (Berlin, Germany). Having unforeseen things happen, may we be wise concerning future outreaches. (There was levels of warfare we breached that was revelatory of God’s love for Romania and Satan’s determination to stay the course)